April 2007 Entries
My +1 link postings are always the last ones in to the pool, but in case you haven't seen it elsewhere, Beta 1 of Visual Studio Orcas is now available for download! This has a large majority of the Orcas features for VB in it, although there are still some features that will be coming in post-Beta1 (lambdas, nullable types, etc.) because of the way the schedule came together. (You can find more details about new features in Beta1, such as "Intellisense everywhere" on our team blog.) I've been writing a LOT of Visual Basic code in the past couple...
I just realized that I've been a little amiss in making amends for some unkind words I had for Battlestar Galatica a few years ago. Right after my wife and I stopped watching, apparently, the writers decided to get their act together and really amp up the quality of the series. Thankfully, my wife's writing mentor's son (how's that for a chain of connection) does the music for the show, and so he managed, through his mom, to convince us to come back a take another look. Once the plot seemed to stop meandering and really ground itself in the...
For those readers of my blog in Japan (or who can speak Japanese), I'm being features on MSDN Japan's "Ask the Experts!" page this month. There's a short introductory video I shot, plus the opportunity to submit questions (or so I'm told) which I will answer later this month. So, if you've got something to ask, submit it and I'll be happy to answer!
In my "five things you might not know about me" blog entry, I mentioned that one of the things that I missed about no longer being in the South was the absence of Cheerwine from my life. What is Cheerwine, you ask? Well, it's a soda somewhat akin to cherry Coke, although with quite a distinctive flavor. The story I had always heard about it was that it was invented at a time (WWI, I believe) when there was rationing of sugar. The soda company was looking for a sweetener, and found that the only thing they could get a supply...
...to Beth Massi, who's transitioning from an MVP and blog writer to full-time content person and blog writer for the Visual Basic Developer Center. Beth's been a great member of the VB and FoxPro communities, and it'll be great having her as a devoted resource to the developer center!
Back in December, when discussing my bout of writer's block, I said that I should probably write an entry "What the Hell I Do [at Microsoft]," since I think that the question is sometimes a little murky (even to me). Most of my career I was just a "developer" or "manager," but now that I am an "architect," things are a little more complicated. As far as I can tell, "architect" is such a general title at Microsoft that it's practically meaningless. It can mean totally different things in different organizations. In my case, being an "architect" seems to mean: I've...